Calderon is a Welfare Pimping Hypocrite; Congress is out of Touch

Mexican president Felipe Calderon used his state visit to the United States this week to lambaste Arizona’s new self-defense, anti-illegal immigration legislation and the 2^nd Amendment to our Constitution.  Speaking before a joint session of Congress, no less, the Mexican leader criticized the new Arizona law because it “criminalized migration and could encourage discrimination” against Mexican “citizens”.  He also blamed U.S. gun laws for the increase in violence in his country.  For his remarks Calderon was given a standing ovation by more than half the members of Congress.  By allowing Calderon to use such a privileged forum as a joint session of Congress to lambaste our laws and to applaud him so loudly, Congress has once again shown how demagogic it is and how far out of touch from the American people it has become.

In the first place, the Arizona law is a good one.  It allows law enforcement to stop suspected illegal aliens only if they are suspected of breaking some other law.  This happens every day in America.  Police stop a motorist for speeding or because a headlight is out, they check the tag number and the next thing you know a different crime has been detected.  The state of Arizona is also providing further safeguards against violations of civil rights by ordering the state’s law enforcement licensing agency to mandate a training course on how to implement the law without violating civil rights.  Lastly, according to Jack Cafferty of CNN, parts of the Arizona law are word for word the same as the federal immigration statutes on the books.  Thus, in his criticism of the law, Calderon was way off base and members of Congress who rose to their feet to applaud his remarks were also showing their ignorance.  But, what can we expect from a legislative body that doesn’t read its own bills let alone those of other bodies?

Secondly, Calderon is nothing more than a welfare-pimping hypocrite.  He supports all types of migration to the U.S by his people because more than $17 billion is sent back to Mexico each year.  This amount that migrant workers, some of them illegal aliens, send back to their families in Mexico is more than the total amount of direct foreign investment in the country.  Calderon appreciates having this side welfare program sponsored by American business to prop up his economy.  Of course, Mexico also enjoys welfare courtesy of our state and federal government.   Billions are spent each year in the U.S. that doesn’t have to be spent in Mexico to educate, medicate, and incarcerate illegal aliens.  It is no wonder Calderon went all out in criticizing the Arizona law since its enforcement may cost his regime a bundle in the long run.

But, that is not all.  Calderon is also a hypocrite.  Amnesty International has reported that illegal immigrants on their way through Mexico to the U.S. from Central America regularly face beatings, rape, and even murder at the hands of the Mexican people.  What’s worse is that evidence has been uncovered linking government officials at various levels to these crimes.  Perhaps Calderon should tend to the problems in his own country before criticizing ours.

And boy does he have problems in Mexico.  Thing is, he made them himself.  Since his intensified war on drugs was instituted in December of 2006 close to 23,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug related crimes.  The victims include judges, police, politicians, and a U.S. Embassy family.  The really bad part is that Calderon’s war is spilling over our southern border with Mexico and is already responsible for numerous kidnappings and the murder of at least one American.  Thus, there can be no question that Arizona is justified on the grounds of self-defense to enforce the new anti-illegal immigration law.  Recent polls indicate that more than a majority of Americans agree.  Again, Felipe Calderon should clean up the mess that he caused in his own country before he comes to America and criticizes ours.

Getting back to America, Article 4 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees each state that the federal government … “shall protect each of them against invasion.”  Arizona and other states of the southwest are under attack from illegal aliens from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.  This is yet another provision of the Constitution that Washington has ignored for too long.  Members of Congress can use demagoguery to defame Arizona’s law all they want.  Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) can claim the statute is “akin to apartheid” and Rep. Jared Polis can proclaim the law was like Nazi Germany.  The bottom line is that Americans are in danger in Arizona and Washington doesn’t seem to care.  Arizona acted justly in its own self-defense.  Outrageous remarks and especially inviting the welfare pimping hypocritical president of Mexico to lecture Americans on the errors of our ways is just another indication of how far from reality this Congress has become.       

Article first published as Hold DN: Calderon Is a Welfare-Pimping Hypocrite and Congress Out of Touch  on Blogcritics.

Drug Czar Supports More of the Same

The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), a nonprofit organization of scientists, health care practitioners, and academics based in Canada and Britain, released a report this week that found that when government cracks down on the drug trade the result is an increase in violence.  The group reviewed over 300 international studies from the last 20 twenty years.  87 percent of the studies reviewed show a direct correlation between intensified drug law enforcement and drug market violence. 

Of course, this should come as no surprise since even without scientific literature anyone can point to examples from history.  The largest lesson to be learned from the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s was that when government bans a demanded commodity consumers will find a way to get it and suppliers will find a way to supply it – unfortunately more often than not through the use of violence.  Thus, prohibition was a boom to organized crime in the 1920s as its profits soared and crime rates rose.  Similarly, the Drug War in the United States has had few if any victories in regards to reducing drug use and violence on our streets continues to be its biggest shortcoming.  Finally, the current Drug War in Mexico has been a catastrophe for that country.  There have been massive increases in gun violence, beheadings, and kidnappings since Felipe Calderon started the crusade.  Close to 23,000 deaths are attributed to the intensified drug law enforcement.  Worst yet, Mexico’s Drug War no longer threatens to spill over into our country, it is already here.

But, of course the drug warrior class in America, whose very livelihood relies on perpetuating the Drug War, denies the findings of the report support calls for ending drug prohibition.  Former drug czar, John Walters, said that increases in violence after law enforcement crackdowns usually only affect criminals and thus might be in a strange way a reflection of success for anti-drug efforts.  But, this ignores the fact that many who die are innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of a turf battle.  In Mexico, a U.S. Embassy family, police, soldiers, politicians, and journalists have been killed by drug violence.  Besides, even if only the criminals are dying from shootouts on our streets, who wants that kind of atmosphere and the inherent threats to innocent people it presents in their neighborhood?

Then, there is the current drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, whose reaction to the report was “I don’t know of any reason that legalizing something that essentially is bad for you would make it better, from a fiscal standpoint or a public health stand point or a public safety standpoint”.  Any reasonable person should be incredulous at the drug czar’s remark.  How can he believe that in the face of this study and obvious historical examples of drug prohibition causing violence.

Now, we can do what Czar Kerlikowske would like and stay the course on the Drug War.  That means we will continue to spend $33 billion a year to fight an unwinnable war.  And we will continue to treat folks with severe drug abuse problems like criminals instead of allowing them to get the help they need to become productive citizens.  Lastly, we will continue to cause violence on our streets by keeping something demanded illegal which raises its costs thus attracting the criminal elements to enter the market with deadly force in seeking high profits.

There is a better way.  Decriminalize drugs and drop the law enforcement savings into treatment programs for those that really need it.  Private advertisers should proclaim the dangers of drug abuse in the same way it was proclaimed about cigarette smoking.  Finally, abolish the drug czar position altogether since its occupants are nothing more than advocates for the police state and violence on our streets.  Given the findings of the ICSDP report and what we can observe from historical examples, we seem to have no other choice.

Article first published as Drug Czar Supports More of the Same on Blogcritics.org

Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You: Mexico’s War on Drugs

February 28, 2009

Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s war on drugs has been an absolute failure in that country.  Last year, more than 6000 murders were committed linked directly to the drug war in Mexico – which was two times the number from the previous year.  Kidnappings, beheadings and other atrocities are on the rise in Mexico involving not just drug addicts, but innocent bystanders, police officers, judges, and other government officials.  Of course, because of the proximity of the United States to Mexico there is a fear that the violence will spread to our soil.  Based on news reports this week, the fears are more than justified as they soon may become a reality.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center

(NDIC) Mexican drug cartels have a distribution network that involves at least 230 U.S. cities.  Recent arrests by American law enforcement of Mexican drug traffickers in California, Minnesota, Maryland and Stow, Ohio indicate the threat is nationwide and located in urban as well as rural areas.  The NDIC believes the Mexican cartels are “the greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S. as they control most of the U.S. drug market and have established varied transportation routes, advanced communications capabilities and strong affiliations with gangs in the United States”.

Because the drugs being distributed are illegal, other illegal activity accompanies their distribution.  There has been an increase in police discoveries of grenades, and other military-style weaponry headed for Mexico in the U.S.  The Phoenix police are inundated with reports of home break-ins, hostage takings, and kidnappings.  Last year, the Maricopa County attorney’s office said such cases rose to 241 from 48 in 2004.  Many of the incidents involve heavily armed assailants with survival and huge profits on their minds.

It is clear that the situation on our streets is about to spiral out of control unless something different from current policy is done.  The Mexican drug cartels effectively use their huge drug profits to arm and supply illegal immigrants and established gangs in the U.S. to carry out their trade.  As the economies of both Mexico and the U.S. continue to deteriorate from the worldwide economic crisis the labor pool for the cartels will expand as individuals seek new ways to feed their families.  Illegal immigration from Mexico will skyrocket even more.  Money for drug interdiction and crime prevention will be short as localities already feeling the pinch of the economic crisis go broke and Washington is paralyzed by the need to fund with a bankrupt treasury so many other needs in the nation.  With high profits from the illegal trade in the U.S., cartels will make our neighborhoods into battle zones.  Left with little help from the government, Americans will increasingly be forced to take the law into their own hands.  They will be no match for the well-financed, ridiculously armed thugs that will roam our streets.

But, America does have the ability to prevent this scenario.  First, we must bring home the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops serving abroad to protect the country they swore an oath to protect.  This not only will save Washington hundreds of billions of dollars annually, but their services are needed to maintain the integrity of our border with Mexico and keep the bad guys out.

Second, the federal government should repeal all drug prohibition laws and leave the matter to the states where it belongs under the 10^th Amendment.  The Obama Administration is to be commended for announcing this week that federal raids on medical marijuana facilities in the various states will be stopped.  This is a great first step, but more needs to be done.  Ultimately the people, through their state lawmakers, must decide what regulations on drugs are appropriate for their state.  As some states legalize currently illegal drugs and experience a decline in violence other states will follow.  Making illicit drugs legal will eliminate the profit bonanzas of the cartels and destroy incentives for illegal immigrants and gangs to terrorize our neighborhoods.  

In June I wrote a post that beseeched American voters to consider a presidential candidate that would end the War on Drugs.  That didn’t happen, but now faced with the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression and drug violence about to spill over into our country from Mexico perhaps President Obama will seize the moment and end a catastrophic policy that has senselessly ruined many lives, brought lawlessness and disorder to our streets, and threatens the very existence of our civil society.